Sunday, September 14, 2008

Orange dyeing

A few weeks ago, my favorite yarn shop, Knitch, was clearing out their Cascade 220 wools, to make way for Shepherd's Wool yarn. I noticed that Shepherd's Wool has more yardage than Cascade, costs more, is softer than Cascade, but not as many colors.

Anyway, it was $5 a skein, how could I say no? So I didn't.

In thinking about my new Hillary orange kick, I looked for oranges and yellows and thought if I hold them together, they might give me the color I want.

I picked Gelato (yellow) and Mimosa (orange) and this is what I got:

Uh, no.

So I took the yellow and overdyed with Orange kool-aid and got this:

Better.

I didn't have any particular cardigan pattern in mind, so I swatched to figure out gauge, see what the colors look like and got these:

I have more KnitPicks Bare yarn, so I can dye some more but not sure that I want to have that much orange yarn. I believe this will be a case of me holding on to this until my husband gets tired of it taking up space in the refrigerator.

It's only about 3 packets of sugar-free koolaid, 2 cups of vinegar, and 6 cups of water. It probably costs a total of $2 so there's no huge cost if I toss it out, but still, I'm reluctant to toss it out.

I'm going with the Gelato-overdyed-with-orange-koolaid, Knitpicks Bare undyed yarn, and Mimosa and starting a Long Coat with Chevron Lace, referred to here.

eta: to include recipe:

Pre-soak yarn in warm water for 30 minutes. When ready to dye, squeeze out most of the water so it is just damp.

In large ceramic bowl, mix 3 and 2/3 packets of orange koolaid, 9.5 cups of water, and 3.5 cups vinegar.

In glass bowl, scoop in 2 cups of the above dye mix and 4 cups water.

Lay in one skein of the presoaked yarn, making sure that all of the yarn is submerged.

Cover with plastic wrap and put in microwave for 2 minutes on high.

After 2 minutes, heat for another 2 minutes on high. All the dye should be soaked up and water clear or just cloudy white.

Using wooden chopsticks, remove yarn from glass container and squeeze out water.